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<title>“Undertale - Undyne the Undying ANIMATION” Review by ArgentDandelion</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27033067">“Undertale - Undyne the Undying ANIMATION” Review</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion'>ArgentDandelion</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Undertale (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Analysis, Animation, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, Reviews, cinematography</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 04:40:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>953</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27033067</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A review of YAMSgarden's “Undertale - Undyne the Undying ANIMATION”, with emphasis on its cinematography, character design, and smooth animation.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>“Undertale - Undyne the Undying ANIMATION” Review</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  
</p><p>
  <strong>1. Prologue</strong>
</p><p>
  <b>(Summary: An excellent animation, and almost flawless; the biggest flaws are not coloring in Frisk’s eyes. Regardless of how one should grade it, it would be an A+.)</b>
</p><p>This animation has a lot of moving parts, fit into a triply difficult framework of a music video Yamsgarden didn’t modify the music to, and a fighting scene, and 2 minutes, 37 seconds. Yet, Yamsgarden cut very few corners. Given how time-consuming animation is as a rule, especially animation of similar fluidity and design complexity, the sheer scope of the project and the fact it was all done by one person (barring the music, by Toby Fox) is very impressive. The animation took eight months to make, and very long days, but in the end, it came out very well.</p><p>There are few errors or missed spots: the most obvious are the stray lines left on faces, especially the central lines. Still, most of these stray lines are hard for the typical viewer to notice, so the only major flaw are how Frisk’s pupils aren’t filled in. Stray lines and pupils aside, the sheer ambition and polish given to this animation shows Yamsgarden cut no corners. The complexity and smoothness of the designs, the animation, and the camerawork is stunning; the animation is exceptional in technical and stylistic aspects.</p><p>
  <strong>2. Character Design &amp; Animation Aspects</strong>
</p><p>While “cartoon” (as in “animation”) might suggest simple, easy caricatures, the character designs and movements are fairly complex for a single-animator project. In some ways, Yamsgarden made things trickier than necessary, such as making Monster Kid’s design more complex, keeping injuries sustained in battle, changing Undyne’s hair-spikiness with her emotions, or starting out with a shot of Alphys when it might have been omitted for slightly less animation work. The characters, too, are also very expressive, even for brief shots. The biggest sign of their extra effort, though, is how they draw Frisk (shown in canon as a blobby bobblehead with a three-line face) as a realistically-proportioned preteen, with more detailed eyes, a nose, and, most of all, five fingers. Even professional animators might omit all five, because it’s tricky to draw.) With all the shots that show Frisk’s fingers, that’s a lot of extra labor.</p><p>The animation is not only smooth, but full of motion, as expected for a fight scene. It also has tiny details like slight hair movements, and even small movements for things not the focus of the scene, such as Monster Kid waving their tail when in the background. Shockingly, Yamsgarden even has Undyne’s fins flop down when she jumps into the air; her fins flop for less than a second, and it’s such a tiny detail few would ever notice. While a less ambitious animator might have Alphys only looking down sadly or starting to sob in the beginning of the video, Yamsgarden does both. The sheer amount of subtle polish in characters’ many smooth, nuanced movements makes it seem so embodied, with so much depth and some “realism” of motion.</p><p>While it’s to be expected the movements would slow down during the slower, sadder parts of the song, movements vary even during the fast parts of the song, building up tension or emphasis: Undyne briefly hangs in the air as she jumps, and Frisk’s hair movements down while remembering something in combat.</p><p>
  <strong>4. Shots, Angles, Camera Motions</strong>
</p><p>
  
  <br/>
  <sub>The armpit shot.</sub>
</p><p>Panning, tilting, dollying, zooming…this animation uses almost every camera movement technique, and does so with skill. It was necessary to reacquaint myself with camera movements just to have the vocabulary to properly describe its sheer excellence. Indeed, some of the camera movements are so subtle, one might not even notice “the camera” at all if not scrutinizing it. The sheer variety of shots types and lengths, angles, and camerawork varies so much, so seamlessly, in such a short span that to identify them all would make for a great cinematography class assignment.</p><p>When it comes to angles even a beginner would recognize, the video has a few low-angle shots and bird’s eye shots. It even has a few instances of the Dutch angle (the diagonal angle famous from Christopher Nolan films), taken to its most obvious and extreme at 1:36-1:44. The first part of that span contains a unique Dutch-angle shot seen from roughly Undyne’s armpit, making Frisk seem small and doomed. The second shot uses the Dutch angle to add to the impression of Frisk’s weakness and disorientation, as they lay on the ground and Undyne trudges towards them to finish them off. And when the shot (and Frisk) become upright, it adds to the sense of sudden reverie and realization.</p><p>Editing video for shot transitions is a subtle art, meant to be subconscious. Thus, it’s hard to articulate how the shots flow into each other so well. Nonetheless, it does have the notable shot transition of a zoom in on Frisk’s red eyes becoming the red heart of Undyne armor.</p><p>
  <strong>5. Special Effects</strong>
</p><p>Undyne’s glowing spear-bullets and eye are to be expected, but the animation goes above mere expectations. The eye flares and wavers in varying ways that must have been complex to animate, and are hard to even notice unless looking closely or slowing down the video. One can see the flare of Undyne’s eye even from the unique “armpit shot”, where no one would even notice if it wasn’t there. The animation does not only accomplish the minimum with style, but adds complex details, like lightning-like sparks and clouds of dust—and different kinds of dust, at that.</p><p>
  <strong>Conclusion</strong>
</p><p>With its manifold excellence, few Undertale animations compare to Yamsgarden’s - Undertale: Undyne the Undying – ANIMATION”.</p><hr/><p>
  <em>The animator Yamsgarden also has a <a href="https://yamsgarden.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a> by the same name. </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The author enjoys comments. Feel free to comment, either here or on the author's <a href="https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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